Today, I am off to Albuquerque, where I’ll be live-blogging the 2010 MTNA Conference! In preparation for the conference, I pored over the workshop schedule to make some preliminary decisions about what sessions I want to attend. Here’s the process I use for mapping out my plan:
1. Look over the options for each time block.
2. Mark a “1” beside the one that looks the most appealing, and a “2” by the second-most appealing topic. This way, if the first option is not exactly what I was expecting, or I feel like in the first half of the time frame I’ve benefited enough from the workshop, I already have a second stop planned.
3. Place a “B” beside the option in any time block that overlaps the previous block of time. For example, there is a 2:15-3:15 p.m. block of time and then a 2:15-3:45 p.m. block of time. This is so that I know that as soon as the current workshop is over, I want to quickly make my way to the location of the “B” workshop to hopefully catch the last part of it. And if both of the previously selected workshops prove to be a flop, I can head directly to the “B” option.
4. In the Exhibitor Showcase categories, I underlined the ones that I know I want to attend, and wrote “Research” by the ones that contained publisher names with which I was unfamiliar. This way, I knew to look those publishers/companies up ahead of time to determine if I was interested in attending their exhibitor showcase.
5. Lastly, I put stars by events taking place exclusively during different times if it is an event that I want to attend (recitals, meetings, etc.).
It’s a tough task to select which workshop sessions to attend! Some blocks of time are filled with options that are of particular interest to me, while others may not have any. I also know from being on the other side of convention planning that it is even more difficult to do the workshop scheduling, so I really appreciate all the work that MTNA has put in to provide such a wealth of intriguing workshops and expert presenters. Stay tuned for lots of updates as the conference gets underway!
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